While C was recovering from her surgery (You can see those posts here , here and here ) she didn’t feel much like taking a bath, but she was eating a lot of sticky stuff(icecream, jello, pudding) so she definitely needed a bath. That’s when I decided to make her a fun bath. She loves to garden and play in the dirt so I thought this would be perfect.

The Garden Sensory bath:
I used fake flowers from the dollar store, seeds also bought from the dollar store, a planter, a watering can, and play gardening tools . and then I made some dirt

To make the dirt all you need is baking soda, water and food coloring
I used 3 boxes of baking soda, you just add enough water to make it crumbly and moist like dirt

I then set up some flowers and seeds for her to plant, added water to the watering can and to the tub, put some tops of fake flowers into the tub and viola a fun bath.

And it worked, she was all about getting into the tub and playing. Looking back I wish I had added some green food color to the water, but it was still great

As you can probably tell we do a lot of sensory activities, and some of them involve a lot of set up, clean up or time in general. I wanted to share some of the things we have done that are just quick and easy, but also a lot of fun!

#1. Add bubbles to the swimming pool

You could also add sea life, shells, bubbles to blow, a bubble machine next to the pool, fake flowers, cups bowls and a stariner

#2. Glow Balloons

This picture is kind of freaky, she looks like a ghost, but it showed the balloons best, just stick a glow stick in the balloon and blow it up, we used glow sticks from the dollar tree they came 10 in a pack and worked great I do recommend larger balloons and of course this works better in the dark, the original idea from this stemmed from a Play at home Mom post about glow hide and seek

#3. Add toys that you wouldn’t normally play with in the bathtub to their bath

These are foam magnet blocks purchased from discount school supply, but the options are basically limitless
Some Ideas: mega blocks, ponies, plastic animals, shells, plastic trucks and cars, a strainer, measuring cups, ball pit balls, fake flowers, dolls(not cloth), dinosaurs, foam shapes
This just switches up bath time and is a great way to give new life to old toys that aren’t played with often anymore

#4 more of a craft, but using chalk on black construction paper

A couple other ideas that I do not have pictures of:
1. Oats in a bin with any plastic toys
2. dirt in a bin with plastic trucks
3. water and ice cubes in a bin with penguins or polar bears
4. a water bin with droppers, measuring cups, and spoons
5. spices and condiments in muffin tins with a bowl for mixing
6. Yogurt or pudding paintin
7. throw pillows and blankets on the floor and see what they come up with

Do you plan on trying any of these? Have any ideas for another simple sensory activity? Please feel free to share and even link if you have a post on it 🙂

I LOVE epsom salt when it comes to play, I first discovered it as a sensory item on pinterest, through multiple sites, and fell in love because you can adapt it to make so many things, and you can get epsom salt from the dollar tree. These are 2 of my favorite epsom salt activities:

A is really into the ocean, he wants to be a Marine Biologist when he gets older, so the quickest way to make him get involved in an activity is to use an ocean theme. That is where this bin came from:
I colored the epsom salt blue, I use gel food color because I like the fact that you can use less of it
I filled it with Sea shells, plastic sea life, and green rocks that we also purchased at the dollar tree and added the wooden tunnel that we got from the pet store.

C is gaga over dinosaurs so for her I made this bin:

Again I colored the epsom salt, but with green this time.
I added rocks, plastic dinosaurs and plastic bugs purchased from the dollar tree, a pinecone from outside, a piece of grass purchased from the pet store, and a wooden block(The husband made these by cutting tree braches into different size blocks, I love them because they have many uses, this is one of them)

These bins can keep children young to old occupied, I even played with them, and it allows them to use a lot of imagination, stay tuned for more epsom salt ideas

We love sensory around here and I have found you can use almost anything for it, This time we used Dry beans, stones, 2 plants, rocks and dinosaurs, C played with this for a very long time, Yes it was messy, No I didn’t care, all it took was a broom for cleanup and C helped.

As you can see C decided to get into the bin, that is where it got messy, but she had fun, that is what matters right?

It’s finally getting to be warm out, and ice is always a great way to cool down, so why not play with it?

For this activity I froze water in loaf pans, dixie cups and icecube trays, I left some of them plain but to most I added food coloring.
Once frozen you just pop them out and they can build with them, smash them, and play with them
It was a lot of fun and kept them cool while playing outside in the heat

Have you ever wanted to play in a Giant bubble, or maybe your child gets hurt or sick a lot and you have threatened to put them in a bubble? No? Well I have always wanted to and when I seen a post on play at home mom, I was super excited to make that dream come true, Played in Giant bubble CHECK!

Do you want to play in a giant bubble now? We set this up inside, but this can also be used outside

Here’s what you need:
Plastic sheeting, you can get this at walmart and most hardware stores, I recommend at least 3mil
Duct Tape
A fan

Here’s what you do
Lay one sheet flat and the other one flat on top of it, Duct tape the sides together leaving a hole for the fan and a hole to enter and exit
Put the fan in one hole and tape the plastic around it

Note: Since we used a box fan we had to put it up on a chair, if left on the floor it caused the bubble to blow up off the ground 🙂

I had a bunch of munchkins that day and they were all entertained for hours, the brought in ball pit balls, baskets, paper tubes, and dolls

I even had fun playing in it, It was also nice to let the babies crawl in

*the children were supervised at all times, only you know what you are comfortable with when it comes to your child, if they may put their hands into the fan I recommend sitting yourself in front of it 🙂

C loves when we mix bath time up with sensory time, and so do I because it makes clean up so much easier! For this activity I used about 1/2 cup already brewed coffee ground, a 1/4 cup fresh coffee grounds, and 2 cups of instant coffee grounds then added in some gardening tools, stones, lizards and a pine cone

I let C get in with her clothes on with no water in the bath first, but a full watering can if you want an easier cleanup let them play naked 🙂
We were cleaned up within 5 minutes though and she had covered the bathtub walls with it

Cloud dough is a lot like moon dough that you buy in the store, it can be molded which makes it super fun and you can do so much with it add scents or colors to broaden the sensory play even more, use it to make fake icecream, dirt, or put it in the freezer for awhile to make it like snow(we added glitter to this one) so hopefully you will give it a try

All you need is flour and cooking or baby oil
just mix 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of oil